The San Francisco 49ers have signed several veteran receivers as injuries have impacted the position group. Jaron Brown, Tavon Austin, and J.J. Nelson have all been added in the last week.
The 49ers hope that offsets the impact of losing Jalen Hurd for the season and Deebo Samuel and Richie James for some time. Although, Samuel remains hopeful he can be ready for Week 1.
Another player who could help alleviate some of the losses is rookie Brandon Aiyuk, who has had an impressive training camp so far.
"Brandon Aiyuk has been spectacular," general manager John Lynch recently told Tim Kawakami of The Athletic. "The nuance to his game, the route-running ability, the skillset that we saw on film, sometimes it translates right away. Sometimes it takes some time. Brandon has been really good early, and that gives him a chance.
"And the greatest thing about him is that he believes he's got a lot more left in him, and he comes to work each day."
Wes Welker is Aiyuk's position coach, and the rookie can learn a lot from the former five-time Pro Bowl and two-time first-team All-Pro wide receiver. Aiyuk has been soaking up everything his coaches and teammates have to teach him.
"He's got the great fortune of playing for a guy who did it at the highest level in Wes Welker, who is a technician," Lynch continued. "I think Wes and him have really hit it off. And Brandon's an easy guy to coach because he wants to be coached so bad, and he takes it to the field. When you teach him something, he files it away, and he does have a tremendous skill set."
The 49ers' other first-round draft pick, defensive tackle Javon Kinlaw, is in the same situation. He can learn a lot from defensive line coach Kris Kocurek and a group of veterans who make up one of the most formidable defensive fronts in football.
"Kinlaw, everyone talks about it, he's a physical specimen," Lynch said. "But we don't just draft physical specimens. They better be good football players. I think it's been talked about, Laken Tomlinson had his day with him a couple of days ago, but Kinlaw comes back.
"The one thing I know about him: he's got a tremendous work ethic, a tremendous skill set. He wants to be great, and he's got a great coach coaching him, who's going to demand excellence out of him each and every day."
Kinlaw replaces Pro Bowl defensive tackle DeForest Buckner, who was traded to the Indianapolis Colts in March. But Lynch doesn't want the rookie to use that as his standard. The two are different players, after all, who bring different things to the table.
"He also has players that are a special group of players with Nick Bosa and Dee Ford, D.J. Jones, Solomon Thomas, that are all really helping him and have really taken him under their wing," Lynch said. "So, he's got big shoes to fill, in the ones that DeForest Buckner left, but we've been very clear with him, you don't try to be DeForest Buckner.
"You try to be the best version of yourself, and I think he's doing a really good job. He's going to be a good player for years to come for us."
